interview
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artist:
by:
Matthew Phillips
date:
2010-06-17
Alex Band is back with his first release since 2004 in the solo debut "We´ve All Been There". With a number of hits with his former band he's ready once again to climb the charts. Matthew Phillips got the chance to ask a bunch of questions and here's the result.
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1) First off, thank you for taking the time to sit down with melodic.net for a few questions. We know your time is important and you don't have to do this. So from the bottom of my heart, thank you. Now, to the good stuff. You left RCA in 2005 I believe. I was under the impression you had signed solo with a major label after that. Geffen, I believe? What happened there? Why didn't a solo Alex Band record ever get released through them? Yes, I did sign with Geffen/A&M and actually recorded my entire solo album with them. It was a long process of writing and recording with different producers over multiple years because the mad man running Geffen couldn't decide who he wanted me to be. I of course wanted to write the kind of music I always have, but he was pushing me to do urban rock among other things that happen to be popping at Top 40 at that moment. It was a creative struggle that I ended up winning eventually, but with our relationship in ruins and of course we deciding to leave the label and take the album with me. They never would have released this album….I would still be sitting there if I didn't make that choice. 2) Is the end result of 'We've All Been There' the material that has been finished for some time or did you continue to add and tweak it over the years up to its release date at the end of this month? For the most part, this is the same album I started writing and recording 5 years ago. I had wanted a church choir at the end of one song and the label wouldn't go for that so I went back and added that once I was free. I also added four more songs to the record that I wrote more recently and thought they would work great with the feel of the album. Those songs are "Only One", "Leave", "Holding On" and "Will Not Back Down". 3) Can you describe how tough it has been to transition to an indie artist without the support of a major label? Is there anything you miss from the corporate side of the music business or are you happy with how far you've come and where you're at? It has been incredibly tough to transition…mostly due to trying to secure all the funds needed and of course the actual creation of a label and all it's working parts. I ended up personally investing huge amounts of money into myself and also luckily found a couple people who believed in me enough to help out. There is nothing I miss at all from the corporate side of the music business…I now get to control everything, most importantly creatively. I get to see every penny coming in and going out. I get to decide who is working for me and who is not. I get to decide every detail of every single aspect of my career. I couldn't be happier with all that after 10 years of being kicked around at major labels. 4) It's hard for a lot of your fans to understand why you and Aaron walked away from The Calling after all the success. Can you try and help us understand what happened there? From what I have heard you continued touring the second album 'Two' without him. Does the music industry get in the way of personal friendships or at the end of the day do you need to just say 'its business?' Aaron made choices that lead to the splitting up of our partnership, but I made the final actual choice to end it. Working with Aaron was no easy task over the years, especially since he continued to bow out of aspects of our job like touring and media/promo, leaving me to do all the work worldwide. It's all of course way more detailed and I could write a novel explaining it all, but this is the best I can do right now! I truly wanted to keep a friendship with Aaron after going our separate ways, but after trying so many times over the years and failing, I eventually quit. I hope he comes to me one day and wants to start over. Yes the music industry can get in the way of personal friendships, because it's based around the same corrupt thing any other industry is….money. I'd love to be able to just say "it's business", but that never seems to really work. 5) Your new album, 'We've All Been There' is simply spectacular. A lot of very well crafted, catchy tunes on it. What was your process in writing the solo tracks? What was the main difference between writing solo and writing for the band (if there was one)? Thank you:) There really was no difference writing this album and writing as "The Calling", other than not having Aaron's involvement. The Calling wasn't a band in the sense of the word. We only hired session players to tour with us and work in the studio…we never wrote or created anything with other people and we never had band members in the legal sense at all, just weekly paid session guys. So we never were writing "for the band". With this solo album, I simply poured my heart out into each song over the last 5 years, writing about everything I've gone through…and I think you can hear that. 6) I have to ask, being a big Carlos Santana fan, how was it like working with him on 'Why Don't You & I?' I know the original had Nickelback frontman Chad Kroeger singing the vocals. How did you get involved in the version that went to radio? Nickelback had an album just coming out when Santana was ready to release Chad's version of the song. Nickelback's label didn't want this because the Santana song would clash with the Nickelback single at radio, especially since Nickelback is "rock" and their label viewed Santana's single with Chad as too Pop. This was all lucky for me, cause Chad loved my voice and The Calling and asked that I would re-sing the song and be the face of the single release. It was the opportunity of a lifetime…to perform a hit single with Santana on stage, on TV, in a video…simply amazing magical moments that I'll remember forever. And I still play the song live of course to this day, even though I didn't write it, cause I did make it my own, and it ended up becoming the #5 biggest song at radio in the US for the last Decade. 7) I'm sure a lot of your fans will be wondering if you will be touring the new album and if so, how extensively and when? (If you do, don't forget Sacramento, CA. I'd love to catch a live gig) I will absolutely be touring following the release of my album. I have a three week US Headlining Tour lined up that I just announced actually. All the dates and information can be found on my site at alexband.net. It's going to be my first US tour in over 6 years, so I am really excited about it! I head to Europe after that to do a similar tour, and then I'm sure I will be back in the States in the fall for more shows. 8) What has to happen for you to consider this record a success after it releases? Or is it a success just getting it released after all this time? That's a great question. Part of me already feels like it's a success considering the first single "Tonight" is top 20 at radio in the US and in Europe already and the album is completely finished and being released in just a few weeks. I can hold the finished album in my hands and hear the song on the radio all over the world…I feel like I have achieved greatness. But of course I am shooting for more; I would love to see "Tonight" become a number one hit and to sell a good amount of albums around the world…I would like to tour to all the countries that have been wanting me for so many years…and I would like most of all to be able to have enough success were I could repeat the process over and over and sustain a career as a solo artist. No one is holding me back now…I can release new music as I please, where I please, and how I please. So as long as there are enough people who want to hear it and buy it, I'm not going anywhere. 9) Will you continue to do Alex Band's Donate Life Rock Concert benefiting organ donation? If so, any details on the next charity gig or any information you want to pass on about the charity, Donate Life America? Yes I will most definitely keep supporting Donate Life and doing the Alex Band Donate Life Rock Concerts. I don't have any details yet on the next event, but I ask everyone to go to donatelife.net and learn how to sign up to be an organ donor if you aren't already. It's easy to do, and you could end up saving people's lives with your own. 10) Looking back on your impressive career so far, do you have one thing that stands out as the true defining moment or highlight to date? There are a bunch from the past….winning MTV best new artist, hearing my songs close the Olympics and open the Oscars, performing for over 100,000 people and watching them all sing along to words I wrote. But I think the true defining moment is right around the corner for me. I have never worked on something so long and so hard as I have this album….never put so much of my blood sweat and tears and money and everything into something like I have with this…and I feel it wasn't all for nothing, I feel it was all for something great, something big. Thank You again for your time Alex. Hopefully I will catch you on the road some time in the near future.
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Did you know that?
Gary Lightbody from Snow Patrol has a side project called The Reindeer Section, a supergroup comprising members of famous Scottish bands including Astrid, Belle & Sebastian, Idlewild, Teenage Fanclub and Mogwai. They have released two albums to date on the Belfast label Bright Star.
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